by David P. Greisman - ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. – Andre Ward and Carl Froch weren’t the favorites when the “Super Six” super middleweight tournament began, yet it is them who will meet in the tournament finals as the last men standing.
Their standing in the sport comes from the men they faced and beat.
Ward, an acclaimed Olympic champion but unproven pro when at the tournament’s outset, has defeated Mikkel Kessler, Allan Green, Sakio Bika (in an out-of-tournament bout) and Arthur Abraham.
Froch, a slugger who’d shown himself to be strong and durable but who wasn’t thought to be anything special, got past an ugly, controversial win over Andre Dirrell and a loss in a competitive war to Mikkel Kessler. When his fate in the tournament mattered most, Froch showed that he was more than a limited slugger, out-boxing Arthur Abraham to land himself one fight away from the finals.
To get there, he’d have to go through Glen Johnson. As with Ward and Froch, Johnson is a fighter who has long been more than what he appears to be. He is a 42-year-old fighter who is still competitive with younger champions. He is a fighter with more than a dozen losses who nevertheless cannot be counted out of finding a way to win.
To win against Froch, many thought, Johnson would need to pressure him, to break Froch from his announced strategy of boxing against a bruiser. Froch, meanwhile, would have to do more than box Johnson as he did Abraham.
Johnson indeed broke Froch from his strategy. But Froch responded by being more than a slugger and more than a boxer, withstanding Johnson’s assaults and putting together a complete performance en route to a majority decision victory.
The scorecards were an even 114-114, overruled by tallies of 117-111 and 116-112 for Froch.
Both men came out boxing, working behind their jabs and attempting to parlay those leads into right crosses. Each, however, was facing a foe not yet looking to engage. When Froch sent out his shots, they bounced off Johnson’s gloves and wrists. When Johnson punched, Froch stepped away or ducked.
